It is not very convincing. Our first argument against allowing Oregon—or Sanctuary—to secede is that of no contest. The case does not admit of enough evidence to warrant admission to serious decision, because the parallels between 1776 and 2092 are so weak. The American colonies had had foreign rule forced on them without representation, foreign soldiers quartered among them, second-class status with a first-class mother country. Sanctuary, on the other hand, has had no federal official so much as enter the place since its initial inspection 36 years ago. Sanctuary is represented in the New York State legislature, in the federal Congress, and in the person of the president—all through the absentee ballot, which Sanctuary residents receive as a matter of course for each election and which are, according to reliable sources, never returned.
It is true that Sanctuary is taxed very heavily in the new tax package approved last October by Congress. But Sanctuary is also the richest entity in not only the United States, but the world. A sliding tax scale is appropriate. Unlike the American colonies, Sanctuary does not hold second-class, exploited economic status in the world. If the entire economic truth could ever be pieced together from investment records around the world, we might very well find that Sanctuary enjoys more financial status in the global economy than the United States; certainly its international bond rating is higher. We might find that Sanctuary actually possesses more opportunity to exploit rather than be exploited. Certainly the Sanctuary annual deficit—if one exists at all—is less than the United States government’s. It is as if Oregon had decided that because its use of federal services and its payment of federal taxes are both less than, say, Texas’s, it may secede. Wrong.
No, by the criteria of the original Declaration of Independence, Oregon and Sanctuary must both remain in the Union.
Another argument to keep Oregon is negative precedent. If Oregon could secede, why not California? Why not Florida? Why not Harrisburg, Pennsylvania? The Balkanization of the Union was settled in that other conflict 225 years ago, that conflict Sanctuary is so careful not to mention in its secession document.
Third, Oregon may not secede because of the argument of violated relationship. It is through United States resources, including the struggle of United States citizens, that Oregon was settled, was built to economic prosperity, was enabled to become the center of the fur trade in the nineteenth century and of Class E comlink production in the twenty-first. Oregon must honor that reciprocal relationship even if she is tired of it, just as a child who has been put through law school by her parents must, in keeping with the Civil Rights Act of 2048, support her elderly parents in the amount needed to maintain the same standard of living she enjoyed at law school. She cannot shuck them off just because she is now more successful than they. She cannot secede from the relationship that established her in her current enviable position. Nor could Oregon.
Finally, Oregon must not be allowed to secede because it is, simply and finally, illegal. Defiance of United States sovereignty, refusal to pay taxes, threats of maintaining independence by aggression—all are outlawed by the United States Code. For Oregon to attempt secession is an illegal act; for her to be allowed to succeed would be a slap in the face to every law-abiding citizen, state, and organizational entity in the country.
Why keep Oregon? For reasons of no contest, negative precedent, violated relationship, and legality.
And as it is for Oregon, so it is for Sanctuary.
No matter who lives there.
Drew arrived at the New Mexico compound the evening of January 6. The day had been unusually cold; he had wrapped a red muffler around his throat and a matching blanket over his legs. Both, Leisha noted, were of fine Irish wool. He powered his chair across the large open living room, built to provide a gathering place for seventy-five and lately never holding more than ten or twelve. Alice’s daughter Alicia and her family had moved back to California, Eric was in South America, Seth and his wife in Chicago. Drew, Leisha saw, had once more changed.
The strident flamboyance of the newly successful artist, a little too self-conscious, had softened. Success did that. Looking up at her face, greeting her, Drew’s gaze was open but in no way needy—not even of attention. He was sure, now, of what he was, without her confirmation. Nor did his gaze shut her out as automatically of less interest than himself, the way so many celebrities did. Drew still looked at the world as if willing to be interested, with the addition of a faint smiling challenge that said continued interest would have to be earned.
It was the look Leisha remembered, always, as her father’s.
“I thought I should come home,” Drew said, “in case this political situation becomes really tense.”
“You think it won’t?” Leisha said dryly. “But, then, you never knew Jennifer Sharifi.”
“No. But you did. Leisha—tell me. What’s going to happen to Sanctuary?”
In Drew’s intonations—Sanctuary—she heard all the old obsession. What did he himself make of that childish obsession now, in his strange adult profession? Did Sanctuary, transformed into the shapes of desire, fuel his lucid dreaming?
Leisha said, “The military won’t blow Sanctuary out of orbit, if that’s what you mean. They’re civilians up there, even if terrorist civilians, and about a fourth of them are children. Any weapons they have could be deadly, but Jennifer always had too much political acumen to cross the line where she could be hit back really hard.”
“People change,” Drew said.
“Maybe. But even if obsession has eroded Jennifer’s judgment, she has others up there to counteract it. A very smart lawyer named Will Sandaleros and Cassie Blumenthal and of course her children must be over forty by now—”
Abruptly Leisha remembered Richard saying, forty years ago, “You become different, walled away with only other Sleepless for decades…”
Drew said, watching her, “Richard’s here, too.”
“Richard?”
“With Ada and the kid. Stella was fussing over them when I came in. Apparently Sean has a flu or something. You seemed surprised that Richard’s here, Leisha.”
“I am.” She suddenly grinned. “You’re right, Drew—people change. Don’t you think that’s kind of funny?”
“I never thought you had much of a sense of humor, Leisha. With all your other wonderful qualities, I never suspected that one.”
She said sharply, “Don’t try to bait me, Drew.”
He said, “I wasn’t,” and she saw in his private smile that he meant it: He had never thought she had much of a sense of humor. Well, maybe their ideas of humor were very different. Along with so much else.
Richard came in, alone. He was abrupt. “Hello, Leisha. Drew. Hope you don’t mind the unannounced visit. I thought…”
She finished the thought for him. “That if Najla or Ricky had any communication to make to you, it would be through me? Richard, dear…I think Kevin would be a more likely choice. Sanctuary deals with him…”